Another Reason To Vote
As the mother of a teenager daughter I’m always keeping my eye on family planning issues, so Colorado’s Amendment 62 caught my attention.
Personhood Colorado’s website acknowledges that Amendment 62 would ban all abortions, without exceptions for rape, incest or to save a mother’s life. It also would ban stem cell research and birth control other than “barrier methods.”
“It reaches into birth control, it reaches into fertility treatments,” Richards said. “The legal turmoil this could create is so immense. I think that’s just the purpose of this amendment . . . to go far beyond choice; it’s to take away women’s right to family planning.”
Remember the days when Republicans said they were against abortion, except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother? Good times. Now they are perfectly okay telling a woman who was raped that she has to have her rapist’s baby. They’re fine with telling a woman she has to have her uncle’s, brother’s or father’s baby. And they have no hesitation telling a woman that she has to die to have a baby.
Here’s the thing. I don’t believe for a second that these “pro-lifers” care about the baby. It’s not as if they give a damn once the baby is born. They don’t seem the least bit upset over the number of children living in poverty. They scream about school taxes, welfare moms, and anchor babies.
No… there cause has nothing to do with the sanctity of human life, and everything to do with controlling women. Don’t believe me? Then ask yourself this: If it takes two people to create a pregnancy why is the man missing in Amendment 62 – and every other “pro-life” platform?
Basically, these conservatives seem to think that it’s the woman’s responsibility to keep a man’s sexual urges in line. Bluntly put (and we’ve all heard this) she needs to keep her legs shut. If she ends up with an unwanted pregnancy, well… that’s her fault. After all, boys will be boys. And if she has to die bringing this child in the world… that’s the price she’ll have to pay for being a slut.
And that’s really what this boils down to. Madonna vs whore. In these “pro-lifers'” minds a saintly woman would die before aborting her child; She’d bear the cross of having her rapist’s or father’s baby. A saintly women would suffer, or even die, in silence.
A whore is a women seeking to get away with murder, or, more truthfully, getting away with having and enjoying sex.
The scary thing about this extreme position is that it’s gaining ground among Republicans.
Dianne Edmondson of the Republican National Coalition (RNC) for Life told The Huffington Post that there are absolutely more candidates this election cycle opposing abortion without exceptions. Each election cycle, her political action committee, founded by Phyllis Schlafly, submits questionnaires to GOP House candidates about their positions on choice issues and then endorses candidates who advocate a strict no-abortion platform. “I know that we have many more candidates responding to us this year than we did in the last election cycle — probably about three times as many — and I’d say at least half of them do meet that criteria,” she said. “The rest are pro-life to one extent or another.”
RNC for Life has endorsed 63 House candidates who are “pro-life without discrimination” and heading into the general election. Edmondson pointed to Bill Flores (TX-17), Stephen Broden (TX-30), Rocky Raczkowski (MI-9) and Sandy Adams (FL-24) as especially exciting candidates to watch. Incumbents endorsed by RNC for Life include Michele Bachmann (MN-6), Jean Schmidt (OH-2) and Duncan Hunter (CA-52).
The candidates getting the most attention, however, are on the Senate side: Sharron Angle (Nev.), Ken Buck (Colo.), Roy Blunt (Mo.), Joe Miller (Alaska), Christine O’Donnell (Del.) and Rand Paul (Ky.). All of them oppose abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
Even several high-profile gubernatorial candidates such as Carl Paladino (N.Y.), Bill Brady (Ill.) and Nathan Deal (Ga.) hold these views.
63 House candidates who are pro-life without discrimination? 63 three candidate who are perfectly okay with forcing a woman to have a baby resulting from rape and incest… and in some cases, forcing her to have a baby even if she dies. That’s a really big number.
As the mother of a teenage daughter (who just got her first boyfriend and turned her father’s hair gray overnight!) this is unthinkable. My daughter’s life matters in its own right, and it frightens me to think that she could be forced to have a child – even forced to die.
Still on the fence about voting for less than perfect, pro-choice Democrats? Shame on you.
Tags: Abortion
Republicans hate women, plain and simple.
“The HORROR, the HORROR.” Kurtz in Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.
You’ve nailed ’em Cassandra.
Another great post this morning.
Things are definitely getting weird.
But as Hunter S. Thompson once said: “When things get weird, the weird turn pro.”
Um… pandora, skipper! Don’t you love me anymore? 😉
Yes, of course I love you.
That post was in agreement with yours.
Maybe it was a little confusing as I now reflect upon it.
I didn’t mean PRO-life.
skippertee, this post was written by pandora — but you are right that this is a really great post.
And points out one of the Great Lies about these teajadis — that is, that they have laid down their Culture Warrior arms and are only focused on so-called over-reaching government. Which is, of course, bullshit. These teajadis are just more of the same GOP wingnut bullshit — looking to control your life while making sure that corporations get to ride roughshod over whatever is left of that life.
that last point you made is the fatal flaw with liberals. Too many of us take an all or nothing approach to who we support. It is what the conservatives are starting to do and i cant wait until it hurts them the way it kills us….. im looking in the direction of some posters who hated “obomba” on day 2 for not giving them a free cookie.
and to Mr Pandora, my uncle has THE best one liner for boys taking his daughter out for the first time…
feel free to use it.
He takes them aside, puts an arm around them and says “son, i just want you to know that whatever you do to her tonight, I’m gonna do to you” and gives him a little pat on the butt.
Conservatives would gladly run up the debt and deficit and be PRO-Taxes if it meant outlawing all abortions. Their fiscal conservative stance is just a mask they’d shed in a minute if given a chance to implement their social issues.
As a mother, why are they advocating for my acceptance in the death of my child? There view of parenting stops at pregnancy.
LOL, a. price! I just sent Mr. Pandora the link!
and skip, im sorry to correct you in public,
but “when the going gets weird, the weird turn pro”
and i think LG would agree it is “the great Dr hunter s thompson”
I mwan really…why aren’t all the Christian conservative rushing out to adopt these overflow of unwanted children living in foster care?
All those unwanted children dumped on the state to care for….getting inadequate care and loving and not reaching potential because of it…then becoming a drain on society.
This is SMALLER governemnt? So a woman has her rapists baby…then what….its either we go back to the days of infanticide or the child goes into a state run home that we pay for….so now governemnt is bigger
Like my mom said….an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure…and dpnt be penny wise but pound foolish…
Simple sayings….but untill these christian conservatives start putting theit money where their mouth is ….kiss my grits
I don’t see either COD or urkie with all his money raising funding or adopting unwated babies…..
I sit corrected.
Comment by a. price on 20 October 2010 at 9:38 am:
that last point you made is the fatal flaw with liberals. Too many of us take an all or nothing approach to who we support. It is what the conservatives are starting to do and i cant wait until it hurts them the way it kills us….. im looking in the direction of some posters who hated “obomba” on day 2 for not giving them a free cookie.
People who are OK with killing innocent people 7,000 miles away who’ve never done anything to you, don’t get any sympathy from me if their daughter gets pregnant.
haha i knew that would draw you out.
Just like a teabag. Predicable and reactionary.
‘Teahadis’ is right. The attitude you quote that “it’s the woman’s responsibility to keep a man’s sexual urges in line. Bluntly put (and we’ve all heard this) she needs to keep her legs shut. If she ends up with an unwanted pregnancy, well… that’s her fault. After all, boys will be boys.” That is the exact same rationalization that is used for the Islamic custom of the hijab and niqab (head scarf and veil) and for the Talibanic invention of the burqa, that men are uncontrollably sexual and therefore it is women’s responsibility if she dresses in a way that ‘inflames their passions.’
Republicans would make great imams — of the Selafist (Wahhabist) kind.
Btw, please PLEASE don’t suggest the CODfish adopt any children. Can you imagine what a kid raised by her would go through? There are other types of child abuse than physical or sexual.
Exactly, Prup.
“My daughter’s life matters in its own right, and it frightens me to think that she could be forced to have a child – even forced to die.”
Sorry, who thinks this?
lot’s of people.
I know your false profits…. er um prophets on Fox would have you think that all liberals run around knocking each other up just so they can go on a second date to the abortion clinic and celebrate by doing it again. I KNOW that is what you think because that is how you speak to us. Like we all have our own coat hanger and gleefully kill embryos…. or even already born children we think are ugly.
But the truth is, most of us would prefer abortions hardly ever happen. It has to stay legal and safe for the cases when a woman is raped and gets pregnant. that is not your choice, it is hers. And even though your male experts on female sexuality tell you that only happens once every 4534235 years, they are (as usual) wrong.
I dont know if you are married Occam, or a man or whatever, but let’s pretend you are a married man… your (for the sake of argument) 14 year old daughter gets raped and impregnated.
Will you force her to have that monster’s baby? Will you tell an already traumatized child that it is actually a blessing and every time she looks at her baby she shouldn’t see the man who attacked her? What about your wife? would you raise a rapist’s child? Force your kids to look at their half-sibling and know they are there because someone violated mommy?
That is what the COD’s of the world fight for.
Geeze, I ask for the weather and I get the stock quotes.
My mom is hard-core pro-life and we talk about this shit all the time. If I tell her there are R politicians out there who want women to die she is going to ask me which ones and it’d be nice to have an answer.
Well, there are no politicians who’s platform is “i want women to die” just like there are none who say “let’s kill and eat some fetus!”
politicians like chrissy O and Pat toomey and pretty much every “true conservative” are of the opinion that if a woman dies in childbirth, it is God’s plan. If a woman is raped and gets pregnant, “it is God’s plan”
If the reason is “because God says” so, it has no place in our national laws.
No one is advocating we let women die. No one has the balls to put it that way. However, the laws they advocate for and the rhetoric and base they appeal to will ensure it happens.
Here’s one for you Occam:
Sharron Angle (R, NV): I think that two wrongs don’t make a right. And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade.
She’s talking about a pregancy that resulted from incest/rape. So making a 15 year old have her father’s baby (despite the 9 months of mental anguish it causes) is “making lemons into lemonade”
Would that be acceptable to your mom if it was you? I would hope not.
Amendment 62 would:
And here are the (Colorado) Republicans:
Call your Mom.
Ken Buck in Colorado also thinks that if you said yes to sex once in the past it means you never say no again. It’s just a case of “buyer’s remorse.”
Here is their disgusting video